Kevin Francis: Found Time

Kevin Francis' paintings presented in Found Time investigate the nature of absence and the generative possibilities of loss. Through found and constructed paper materials, he explores what it means to retreat to solitude, and, inevitably, the need to retreat from it. Francis’ new body of work continues the artist’s interest in grid compositions while introducing a new form of mark-making, resulting in compositions that are both organic and structured. After sourcing his paper, the artist pours, soaks, and submerges his material in paint. Then, through a simple drying process, he allows the paint to cure on its own: trickling, pooling, and smearing into patterns of an uncontrolled nature. Once dry, the large sheets are then cut and reassembled into a quilt composition that is sewn together, fastening into their shape and dimension.

The paintings in Found Time illustrate a duality in the artist’s current practice. On view in the front gallery room are large-scale paintings of varying subtle tonal ranges. Francis’ work is at once generous and introspective, captured in grey, blue, black, and white paintings that appear as landscape vignettes.

In the gallery’s middle and east room, the paintings display vibrant bursts of color and shift to a central composition creating an intensity that is at once internal yet reaches far beyond the landscape. For this series, the artist worked with highly saturated UV paper, drawing into the perceived patterns and shapes he found in the material.

Through these explorations with found paper - documents of discarded time - the work reveals how loss can erode or abstract one’s relationship with time. Whether collectively or individually felt, absence complicates the distinctions between having time and lost time, and between finding time and found time.

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Kevin Francis lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Francis forms broad patterns over textured, reflective, and undulating surfaces that are then sewn together. These marks create a lens to contemplate and explore the interplay between the line, grid, and abstraction. The overlaying line, linear composition, pattern making, and abstraction play on the reflexive instincts of the viewer to read, as well as view, the paintings.

Massey Klein Gallery is located at 124 Forsyth St. New York, NY 10002. For inquiries regarding works available, please contact info@masseyklein.com.